Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

bails

Thanks Funky, they were born last night, they come out with all that fur! The ginger one is winning a few hearts that's for sure!

Hi Whowants2brich and welcome to our challenge! Congratulations on your impending wedding, a great reason for honing those saving skills We're always keen to learn more ways to save money so feel free to post any gems you have up your sleeve. The 4K counts towards whoever lives in your household so some people are keeping whole families on that amount! We're just a couple with several pets and finding it tough enough so all tips gratefully received

Nessa56

Hi all,

I have been lurking for a while, but just wanted to say how much I admire you all,

I have just joined the May Grocery Challenge and am really scared at posting £200.00 for just the month of May, I don't know how I would manage on the 4000 for a year.

I may join next year as I would love to cut my spending and get rid of as much of my mortgage as possible as soon as possible, before I retire :eek:

Well done all and if you don't mind I will keep lurking to get some good ideas?

thanks

v
x

funkyfunkymonkey

mumzyof2 wrote: »

WOW bails had kittens????? Thats amazing :P :rotfl: :rotfl:
(I knew what you meant though FFM)

Cheeky

FFM

mumzyof2

funkyfunkymonkey wrote: »

Cheeky

FFM

Thats me!!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Marru

mumzyof2 wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: LOL at shall i jump in my car straight away :rotfl: :rotfl:

Bails wrote: »

Guess who's coming to see the kittens?:rotfl::rotfl:

Ummm - Yes I did invite myself for tea. Couldn't resist . Tea was lovely, thank you Bails and the kittens just adorable. I have never had the honour to meet quite that young creatures (apart from my own DD) before. I woul LOOOOVE to have the first one I held but as I have said my darling Dog wouldn't approve and as I have had her company for 14 years I think I should respect that.

Someone of you might know that I had a bit of an accident with hay last week on a bingo day. So my downstairs hallway was covered with hay for the honour of us playing at the stables. Well as it happens today I got the downstairs hall covered with sawdust. This time can't blaim the Dog it was all my fault. So why do I bother? I should just ask my new employer to house us at the stables as we seem to enjoy living on sawdust and hay anyway. At least my hallway has now been cleaned two weeks in a row and is the tidiest place in the house :rotfl:.

Talking about cleaning, I found a cleaner, (Post office never lets one down ) but she is going for hols next week so will come and have a chat on the following week. Couldn't really talk about money over the phone as DD was trying to rip it off from me and she was screaming her head off tired from the exciting trip to see the kittens. Prefer to talk about money face to face anyway.

Better finish my frugal supper (boiled potatoes, beans from can and grated cheese) and start my animal cleaning duty. Funny that I don't mind that at all I guess I am well suited for mucking out.

Have a good night night everybody and a fabulous Wednesday.

Marru

Frugaldom

Earlier, I typed a really long reply to everyone's posts, carefully commented on each, coo'ed over kittens, welcomed the newbies and gave a full run down on today's activities... the whole lot disappeared into cyber ether!! :mad:

Slowlyfading, good work getting through your exam and now putting that behind you.

Bails, hope you got the kittens safely as insulation's really dangerous stuff. Love those kittens, tho.

Marru, sawdust, shavings, hay? You really do need that farm with stables

Shaz - sorry I can't help with the books question, but if you find out how to sell them quickly you can let me know, I have loads to get rid of.

Nessa56 - don't lurk, you can still come out to play on this thread even if you aren't taking part. Call it practice for 2009.

Whowants2brich - welcome to the 4k challenge, congrats on the engagement and impending wedding and thank you for your offer of moneysaving suggestions. All are welcome. If you decide you want to take part here for the remainder of the year and you are splitting 50/50 with your fiancee then that leaves you £1262.29 from midnight tonight until midnight 31st December 2008. I won't mark your name into the challengers' list just yet in case you want to reassess your finances (and joint-finances). In the meantime, feel free to throw moneysaving suggestions our way. It'll take some ingenuity to come up with anything new for this lot, however. :rotfl:

Today has been glorious, warm sunny day again - 3 BBQs in a row, not bad and excellent for the electricity consumption. I even use eco-friendly BBQ bricks that I err... bulk bought cheap off eBid last year and still have a full case. Went to garden centre again and got 6 grow-bags (only £1.20 each) plus some garden canes for the netting, (it arrived this morning and umm... 50m is rather a lot! :eek: ) plus a tub of leek seedlings and a packet of peas. Total spend for the day - £12 and the BBQ food was compliments of HS and DD, who arrived with DGD and a bag of goodies. We made up chicken kebabs with peppers, mushrooms and onions, a bowl of mediterranean couscous, rolls and BBQd some fresh turkey fillets.

Friend & her mum arrived to visit for cuppa, then we had BBQ and then I eventually got started in the garden at 6pm. G.Pig was back outside in his run with next door's cat sitting watching him. GP ended up running at the cat! :rotfl: Got 2 full rows of leeks planted (cost £1) and got the netting fitted to the top end of the veggie patch. I now have 5 rows potatoes, 2 rows leeks, 3 rows onions and still need to plant out the carrots, lettuce and brocolli. I may need a bigger veggie plot! :eek: I have tomato and pepper plants everywhere and another full tray of cherry tomato seeds just sprouting, plus need to get the peas planted now the netting's in place. This could turn into a fulltime job at this rate! I need a greenhouse.... I quit smoking, I have saved £1.35 every day since 31st December 2007, I can have a greenhouse - IF it's a mobile one that can be moved when we move house. :j
I LOVE THE START OF SUMMER! :cool: :beer: BBQs every sunny night, no heating needed and plenty of fresh air. It's so much better than the cold, damp, dark, dreary winter months.

OH! OH! OH! Did you all see the news about the Chancellor buckling under the pressure to sort out the 10% tax scandal? He's RAISING THE PERSONAL ALLOWANCES! :T :T :T Looks like us self-employed folks who can live on £4k will be able to earn just over £6k this tax year without paying any tax! I can live with that!

MrDT

bails wrote: »

The 4K counts towards whoever lives in your household so some people are keeping whole families on that amount! We're just a couple with several pets and finding it tough enough so all tips gratefully received

Lucky for me I live alone huh bails (yet I'm still overbudget at the moment :rolleyes:)

Welcome to the thread whowants2brich, you should definitely stick around - the challengers are very accepting of late starters.

Hint hint Nessa56 Your target doesn't strictly have to be 4k remember


Couple of potentially expensive days ahead for me, trip to London village - I'm getting up at 4am :eek: (just as well I had a powernap between 8pm and midnight )


Then again, maybe not too expensive as the trains are paid for, as is the hotel (£1 hoxton room lol), i have snacks ready to take with instead of paying train station prices (expensive :eek:), london dungeon tickets paid courtesy of clubcard deals, and museums and galleries are free which is fantastic news to me as I intend to visit the tate modern, natural history museum and the science museum

Drinks and food etc will probably mount up, but I'm not gonna be stingy about it, would rather enjoy myself whilst away then do some damage limitation when I get back!

Have a nice week everyone, I'll be back at the weekend :cool:

mumzyof2

Good Morning all,
Today my health visitor is coming as yesterday i got the wrong day! Then i have to take DS3 to nursery at 1pm-3.30pm so in that time i might pop into town with my ex and have a smooch around me thinks. I dont need to buy anything though i got it all yesterday..oh saying that could do with picking up some washing tablets.

wornoutmumoftwo

I've updated my sig, spent quite a lot seeing as I only started this challange again on 1st May.

I've spent £25 on gardening (2 mini greenhouses/veg seeds/pots), which should pay itself back in time (fingers crossed).

Spent £40 on my OH birthday pressie, managed to get a cheap DS on ebay, hopefully it will work, as soon as it arrives I shall enjoy testing it out.

£127 on food, includes a bulk shop and I have full freezer and cupboard so I'm hoping to stretch this as far as poss.

Going to do some bulk cooking tonight and tomorrow and I have plenty of flour, sugar, eggs etc.

The garden is going well, I have planted a little of everything and it's all tucked away in the greenhouses at the moment while I get my terribly stony soil de-stoned and ready for planting.

Marru

Something AMAZING just happened. I got this mysterious big parcel delivered to me and inside was a BREAD MAKER!!! Also there was this lovely little dog in a lovely little pink bag with paw prints all over the bag and some sweeties. I must have a fairy godmother somewhere and she must be reading this thread to know me so well. So if you are reading this a BIG THANK YOU!!! :j:j:j

Now I definitely need to get my meal planning and shopping list started so I can go and get ingredients for my first ever HM bread. (Heading to Mysupermarket to find best value flour...)